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#LostAndFound #Interview: Kathryn Evans, author of MORE OF ME, on growing up

I’m so excited to be joined today by Kathryn Evans as part of the #LostAndFound tour!

Kathryn is the author of More of Me, a story of Teva, whose body splits into two once a year, like a yearly backup version. She lives in a big, ol’ house with a version of her from every year of her life (from the age of 5), permanently frozen at that age. Yes, it sounds weird, and it is, but don’t you just have to read it now????????

I don’t think I could handle living with 20 versions of me at different ages. Could you?

I decided to find out a bit more about Kathryn and her childhood, and what I learned far surpassed my expectations. Enjoy her memories, then find out more about the book and the tour below!

PS – I still have my stuffed bunny, and she even goes on holidays with me!

The Ages and Stages of Kathryn Evans

When did the angsty, angry, “Fifteen” stage of adolescence kick in for you?

I was such a classic moody teenager, I had a little suitcase, lined with pictures of David Bowie, that I was forever packing with the full intention of leaving home because nobody understood me. To be fair to fifteen year old me, I don’t think anybody really did understand me. Least of all me. I was full of contradictions, a passionate feminist with a crush on a boy that treated girls SO BADLY. I was a mess. I was desperate to fit in and desperate to stand out. I thought I was both great and useless. And the world upset me a lot. It still does.

At what age did you get into the most trouble?

Crumbs – this is probing! Everyone will see a different side to me after reading this… At home I was sullen and argumentative, even though I had a step-mum who treated me like one of her own, I carried a weight of grief for my mother who had died when I was little. I was sad and I took it out on other people. I used to have full on fights with my older sister (though she did used to wind me up on purpose – no, really, she did, she will own up to this, I promise).

I also went to quite a rough school and I was picked on by another girl – the usual thing: we didn’t have a lot of money and I often had my sister’s hand me down clothes and my mum cut our hair – I had a paper round but it took forever to save for a proper haircut or a pair of jeans. I was quite clever and I spoke quite nicely because we’d travelled about a bit and I hadn’t really picked up an accent. Well, everyone knows the rules of school. I should have been the quiet nerdy kid who sat at the back and kept a low profile. But I didn’t. I discovered I was really good at drama, it helped me carve a niche for myself at school that wasn’t about my clothes or my terrible hair. And there was one girl who hated me for it. She used to stick pins in my hands in needle work and was constantly having a go at me.

One day I’d had enough and when the teacher asked me why I was fidgeting about so much, I told her I was being jabbed with a needle. That was it. I’d told. The girl asked me for a fight after school. I felt absolutely sick. As I walked away from that class wondering how I could get out of it, she jumped me in the corridor. She’d borrowed all her friends big sovereign rings and smacked them down on the back of my skull. I may have been scrawny but I’d had years of scrapping with my sister and I totally lost it. I remember that fight with shame – I was ashamed then and I am to this day because if a teacher hadn’t broken it up, I’d have kept hitting that girl until she couldn’t hit me back.

When I got home, I knew I was going to be in huge trouble, so I confessed to my mum. She was furious at first, but when I told her how long I’d put up with the bullying, she went off like a rocket. Lord knows what she said to the school, but there were no repercussions and I was never picked on again.

Did you have a first boyfriend like Ollie?

No. My first serious boyfriend was a beautiful boy who was just beginning to realise he was gay. Sadly, that happened about six months into our relationship when I was head over heels. And it happened with one of my best friends. The characters may not have been the same but the heart ache, oh the heart ache was just like that.

Do you have any fun photos with your friends that make you smile every time you see them?

I do! They aren’t great though because we didn’t have digital cameras in the stone age. I went camping with five of my pals when we finished our GCSE’s – we had an absolute ball even though we were camping in the garden of one of our head teacher’s friends – god bless that man for making that happen, we’d asked him if we could camp in the school grounds which would not have been at all safe, instead he sorted this trip out for us – imagine, five inner city kids let loose in your pals posh garden!

At what age did you write your first story?

I’ve always, always written. My first thing in print was a ridiculous poem about a Volcano that was published in the school magazine when I was about 11. I was so proud. So so proud. Oh I just remembered, when I was in junior schools, aged about 8, I set up a club that had a magazine – we called it the Tiger Club and hand wrote every edition!

Did you have a school uniform?

At which age did you think you were the coolest, like Thirteen?

From the moment I discovered I could act, I was always way more confident that I should have been. I always did things, you know? Made stuff happen – it may not have been successful but I always tried – for example I wanted to go to a drama club near my house but there wasn’t one , so I started one – hired the hall and everything – I probably would have been about 13, so maybe I did think I was cool! I certainly believed in myself. Misguidedly most of the time. The drama club was a massive fail!

Did you have a stuffed toy that you couldn’t part with?

I still have him. His name is Scruffy. I adore him.

About More of Me by Kathryn Evans

Published by: Usborne Publishing

Publication date: February 1st 2016

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction

Teva’s life seems normal: school, friends, boyfriend. But at home she hides an impossible secret. Eleven other Tevas.

Because once a year, Teva separates into two, leaving a younger version of herself stuck at the same age, in the same house… watching the new Teva live the life that she’d been living. But as her seventeenth birthday rolls around, Teva is determined not to let it happen again. She’s going to fight for her future. Even if that means fighting herself.

About Kathryn Evans

From a back ground in theatre, Kathryn somehow ended up running a fruit farm and raising two children. In addition to writing, Kathryn loves to belly dance, fences competitively and is Finance Co-ordinator for SCBWI British Isles. It took Kathryn fifteen years to get published, her mum says if she were a dog, she’d be a terrier, a hound of tenacity.

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